Fire On Your Head

I’ve written entries before concerning how to have faith, or how to increase it. I honestly don’t think faith is a subject that can be exhausted, but all of us can use continual reminders. So allow me to present a simple and practical way to increase your faith for believing for the impossible.  This post will deal with a lot of personal experience, and next week’s follow-up will delve into detailed Scriptures on the subject. This will be long, but not too deep.

First, let me establish that it’s NOT true that all believers have an “equal amount” of faith. Baby Christians for example, would have a hard time believing God–or you–if you spoke to them something on His behalf—if you told them grand supernatural things that God was going to do using them. Whereas someone who’s older and more mature in the Lord, should have been stretched and gone through enough experiences in life that he could see for himself in his own life how God’s promises are yes and amen in Him (2 Cor 2:20).

Each of us begins at the point we’re saved, with an equal measure of faith, but from then on the believer is shaped by experiences, how much of the Word of God they choose to eat—they can eat it in bites, or they can devour it.  Individuals can have the faith to be saved, and be converted at the same point in time, and some out-pace others by leaps and bounds as to the depths in God they choose to go into, while others drag their feet and never leave their diapers behind.

That being said, I’m writing this to anyone who wants more faith. What is the simplest and most obvious way to increase your faith? Trials and tests. Great faith comes by great tests. It doesn’t come just by feeding on God’s Word. Nor does it come from listening to great preaching podcasts or mp3s, or reading a lot of books by faith teachers. The potential for great faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17).

Great faith comes when you put what you’ve heard or learned into practice. Athletes don’t build muscle by knowing how to. They get stronger from actually building those muscles. How do they do it? They work out in the gym. They go for runs or make sure they eat healthy. But with exercise, they use their muscles against something—‘no pain, no gain.’ They don’t get bulked up and physically fit from just reading books about how to exercise—they exercise! To build faith muscles, you have to use your faith against something. You need some kind of pressure put on you, whether it be from the Heavenly Father allowing us to be tested, or whether it be demonic attack over our lives through finances, health or other various and typical circumstances he attacks us through.

Miraculous formation of an unborn baby’s brain

I once heard second-hand about a man who found out that his unborn daughter was going to be born with only a quarter of her normal brain fully formed. In response to this, the man quit his job, and got all the healing and faith preachings he could get his hands on, and would pace the floor of his living room all day listening to them as if it were a full time job. Then after a few weeks when he was convinced in his spirit of God’s will for his daughter to be born whole, and not lacking, he found all the Scriptures in the Word of God dealing with the subject, and would pace his living room praying in tongues and confessing these verses out loud. Simple Bible verses that were just “typical” healing passages, he’d read them and quote them out loud for hours. Then after about 5 or 6 hours, he would just thank God for the miracle He had already provided, as if it had already came to pass. He knew what 1 John 5:14-15 said concerning believing that we’ve received. Then he’d go to bed, and start the same routine again the next day.

You’re likely reading that thinking that’s insane, but that’s what this man decided was necessary to do to bring himself to a place where he could confidently expect God to move in his daughter’s body. He didn’t do this stuff to “get God to heal”, but to bring himself to a place of faith where he could believe he received what God already gave. That part right there—that God already provides things and it’s up to us to obtain them by faith–trips up many people who believe that in God’s sovereignty He picks some to die prematurely for some higher purpose. Wrong!!!!!!!! God doesn’t kill babies because He “needs another flower in His garden”. In fact, if you want to keep your head attached to your neck, you best not ever say something like that around me in person. When a family loses a loved one, especially a child or a pregnancy that results in miscarriage, the last thing they need to be told is the utter schlock that passes for “proper theology” like “God willed it”. I’m sorry, you’ll never find that in Scripture, and what most people base their theology on is the promises of the Word they’ve failed to obtain in their experience or someone else’s. But if you want to be bold and believe for the miraculous you will need to ignore such people—they’ll only drag you down and talk you out of it. I had a teacher who once said “healing is relative: your relatives will keep you from getting healed”.

Needless to say, the man and his wife continued to get ultrasounds done by their doctor, and each time they were seeing that the baby’s brain had grown bigger and bigger until it was fully formed. She was born totally and fully functional, and at the time of the article that I heard this from, the child was 5 or 6 years old or something and had no unusual health problems in her life so far. But this man did what it took to bring himself to a place of faith to obtain the promise. Many people don’t want to persevere to obtain miracles, because many believe if you don’t get the answer right away, then that means God’s answer is “no” and it’s improper to keep persisting. I wonder if these same people read the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 11?

My personal financial needs met

Recently in my life I was really stretched and challenged in the area of my finances. I don’t make my support levels public, and when I indicate or ask for needs to be prayed about, I remain vague.  At the beginning of 2007, my first two months back in The Netherlands where I was serving as a missionary at the time, no financial support came in for me like I had been counting on (and should if people are pledging to support, but that’s another sermon). I had my parents send me some money, but Calvary International Canada, my missions covering, e-mailed me explaining the reason no money was put in my account was because no money had come in for me. Yikes! I have been in tight spots before, and much of the previous 6 years of my life to that point, I’ve lived in other countries, unable to legally work in them, and had to believe God for my jar to not run empty–but it overflowed only by HIS miraculous provision. Since I was already in the habit of praying for extended periods in tongues in the basement at our team’s Firehouse cafe in afternoons or evenings when we’re closed, I started to find Scriptures that talked about God meeting my needs–or passages on money–and write Scripture memory cards and pace the floor of the café and read them over and over again out loud, and confessing the Word over my problems like I’ve been blogging about for months now.  I was practicing what I’m preaching and, I only teach what I know from experience and the Word of Christ.

I also did NOT ask God for money–I thanked Him for already providing it. I thanked Him for the various ways and methods He had decided to get it to me. Harold Collins, my director at C.I.C. says “God told us to pray for our daily bread, not our monthly bread” and boy was I finding that true! But I still never lacked, and I ate nicely, and owe no bills. Immediately after discovering this “crisis”, I found out that my American agency, F.I.R.E. International, had deposited almost $400 US into my account, but I didn’t know it for almost a week because I hardly ever check it because most of my support comes in through Canada, and what does come in through F.I. just covers my expenses with them producing my newsletters and mailing them to Canada for me.  When I discovered this, I immediately withdrew it and functioned off of it for how long it lasted. Not only that, but a month soon after saw my support spike up to a level higher than what’s normally “pledged” to be there every month. I could go into detail of other things, like having Dutch people paying for things for me or blessing me monetarily. But fact of the matter is, in the natural realm I could not have foreseen that happening while pacing the Firehouse floor in prayer during that whole winter season—not with my natural eyes anyway. Even if next month were to see me have nothing come in again, I can have stronger faith from the previous time it happened, and thank God that that must mean He’s got a more wild way to provide for me that gives Him greater glory as miraculous Provider. When God gets the glory for something that couldn’t have been done by myself or my own ingenuity—then I’m just fine with that, since the glory can only be had by Him!

Anyway, back to our subject: it usually takes pressure or a crisis before we find out what kind of faith we have, and many Christians are more sheltered from that than they realize. Sudden calamity is the only way many people are confronted with the opportunity to put their faith into practice. This is an effective way to grow in our faith, and probably yields the most lasting results, but there are other ways. As Smith Wigglesworth said, great victories come out of great battles.

But other people, if all their faith was dynamite, it wouldn’t be enough to blow their noses! You and I are in charge of how we’re going to respond in the face of crisis—does God really mean what He said in His Word, or not? How we respond determines how our faith will develop.

A simple way to practice having faith:

Ask God for something small or trivial, like a new pair of socks–especially if you are NOT going to go out and buy them yourself. Find some simple thing you need and can’t afford or can’t accomplish on your own, and put your faith into the promises of God’s willingness to provide for you. A pair of socks is simple enough. Pray about it and believe for the provision. Pick a specific color. If someone gives you a pair of white socks and you’ve been praying and believing for black socks, then thank God that He gave you the white socks, but keep believing for the ones you asked for. Most people make the mistake of believing “good enough” is God’s best. No, it just means that while waiting to give you the black socks you’ve been asking for, He decided to give you a pair of white socks as well, and the other ones are still on the way.

You probably think I’m being ridiculous, and I am for a purpose. Despise not the day of small beginnings, and if your faith needs to grow, then start with things you can ‘almost’ handle. People don’t go from obtaining the socks they ask for in prayer to moving mountains and splattering grandma’s goiter all over the wall by faith through prayer overnight, do they?!

If this entry blessed you and you’d like to hear further teaching on faith and how to have more of it, then consider listening to this teaching of mine on the subject:

Faith and Healing -

Download mp3 (right click and save)

And let me know if you got that pair of socks you were believing for!

Or check out this video of Joel Crumpton teaching on healing and sharing testimonies to build up your faith.